


Dinner Invitation (With Surprise!)

by Kikimay



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Dudley doesn't understand wizard pregnancy, Established Relationship, Fluff, Harry spent his childhood in a cupboard y'all, Humor, Light Angst, M/M, Mention of Past Abuse, Mpreg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-12
Updated: 2016-06-12
Packaged: 2018-07-14 17:14:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7182038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kikimay/pseuds/Kikimay
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Draco planned a perfect, quiet dinner to distract his grumpy and heavily pregnant husband. He just couldn’t imagine to find a Dursley there ... </p><p>[For the harrydracompreg fest]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dinner Invitation (With Surprise!)

**Author's Note:**

> This story was written for the harrydracompreg fest on LJ. Today all the Mystery Authors were revelead and so was I.
> 
> Prompt by LeontinaBowie slightly modified by me. Hope you like it!

 

Something in the use of the Portkey must have had gone dramatically wrong. Harry Potter thought it when he found himself immersed up to his knees in a garden pond.

“Bloody hell!” he snapped, biting his lip. The water mixed with mud had wet the last pair of trousers he still managed to wear comfortably. “Damn it!”

Draco appeared in an instant, emerging from a gardenia bush.

“Here we are. How did you end up in there?” he asked, holding back a laugh. “Let me help you,” he added, encircling Harry’s back with a firm grip to help him get out of the pond. With his free hand he balanced the weight of his husband’s belly that was pushing him inexorably forward. “It’s my fault, I should have found a better way to travel.”

Harry pouted and moved his legs, in an attempt to shake off a bit of water.

“It’s not your fault. It’s me! I’m heavy and clumsy and even unable to ...”

Draco stopped his tirade with a firm kiss and then waved his wand to clean and dry his husband’s trousers.

“They won’t be the same again!” he protested. “The magic tightens them and I won’t be able to fit in next time!”

“We will ask Kreacher to adjust them once we’re back at home. Or we’ll buy another pair. It’s not the end of the world, Harry.”

The Chosen One kept sulking stubbornly as Draco’s gentle hand led him into the main road.

The eighth month of pregnancy was proving to be more difficult than he expected. 

Among the categorical prohibition to do any good physical activity, the inability to move with dignity and his huge belly, Harry felt on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Luckily it was almost at the end of the pregnancy. Which was a stressful thing on its own.

“I’m going to look like a tool tonight,” he lamented, pressing his head on Draco’s shoulder.

“Don’t be silly! You’re going to relax and enjoy the company. Don’t you want to know where we’re heading?”

“You said it was a surprise.”

Draco smiled brightly.

“We are going to have dinner with a colleague of mine. She silenced that Parker windbag more than once and it was quite amusing! She’s younger than us. She was sorted during our seventh year, that’s why you won’t probably know her. But I’m certain that you’re going to like her. She’s unconventional and she also grew up among Muggles!”

Harry flashed a grin at his excited husband. Draco must had decided to impress him and he was pulling out all his best cards.

“So you two met at St. Mungo’s?”

“Yes. Like I said, she’s a colleague. A good one, I must admit.”

“Such appreciation! Do I have to worry?”

Draco turned to Harry, holding him closer. His grey eyes were filled with pride and desire, and his lips were already stealing his husband’s kisses.

“By now you should know there’s no one else in this world for me, _Mr Malfoy.”_

Harry smiled against his mouth.

“By the way, here we are,” Draco whispered.

Harry turned around to look at the house before them.

It was quite nice, surrounded by a paved driveway and a garden full of flowering bushes.

Draco opened the wooden gate and escorted his husband towards the door. Before Harry could get any closer to the bell, the door flew open and a brown-haired witch showed herself.

“You made it! I’m so glad!” she exclaimed, holding out her arms towards the guests. 

“You must be Harry! The man holding Draco Malfoy on the tip of his little finger!”

“Oi!”

Harry laughed and let himself be drawn in a clumsy hug. Draco’s colleague wore the same earrings Luna used to wear when he first met her. It was a nice touch.

“Come on in!”

Harry entered into the hall and looked around while Draco helped him take off his jacket. The house was cosy, the walls were painted in yellow and orange with little details near the ceiling.

“Our host,” Draco began gravely, “forgot to properly introduce herself. Harry, meet Eileen Stevens, healer at St. Mungo’s.”

“Oh yes! Yes, sorry! I got really excited! And anyway you can call me Ellie.”

“Nice to meet you, Ellie,” Harry replied.

He almost didn’t notice the person who was approaching them. Yet he could never forget that round face and that empty expression ...

“Oh, I forgot! There’s also a friend who ...”

“Dudley.”

“Harry.”

 

~

 

Harry’s rigid posture betrayed his agitation and anger. If Draco didn’t know his husband so well, he could almost be fooled by the fake smile and the indifferent expression he was sporting.

“Harry, sit down. You must feel tired. There are pillows on the couch, next to the chairs, they will help with the back pain. I’ll go check on the roast.”

Ellie walked into the kitchen as Draco proceeded to arrange the pillows on the chair behind Harry’s back, his eyes staring at the open-mouthed Muggle in front of him.

“So I assume that you’re really ...”

“Dudley Dursley, Harry’s cousin. Though we haven’t seen each other in years.”

Draco’s lips curled into a bitter grimace.

“Hi, Harry.”

“Hey, Big D.”

Dudley was still the usual blond bruiser he remembered, even if something was quite different about his eyes.

“Draco, would you bring me some water? I’m thirsty.”

“Of course, love. _Anything for you,_ ” the Slytherin muttered with a subtly belligerent tone.

Dudley seemed petrified.

His gaze had just caught the anomaly of Harry’s huge belly and a veil of sweat had appeared on his forehead. Ellie’s voice roused him from the depths of his thoughts.

“The roast is almost ready! We can start with the appetisers and salad. Draco, Dudley, if you’ll be so kind ...”

“Sure,” they replied in chorus.

 

~

 

The starters consisted in a plate of assorted cheese, shrimp mousse and two kinds of salad.

Draco had just begun to serve his husband, filling his plate with all his favourite foods.

“Not that much. I’m not really hungry.”

An affirmation that betrayed the anxiety Harry was feeling, since the same Harry, in the previous week, had been able to empty the pantry at least a couple of times.

“Fine. Try to finish the salad, though. It does you good.”

Ellie looked at her guests.

“Loss of appetite? Excessive fatigue?” she asked. “Do you need a Pepper-up potion regime?”

Draco shook his head.

“Not at all. Harry’s pregnancy is going beautifully, the values of his blood are optimal. He only had an intense day, that’s all.”

“I see. I’m sorry Harry, you should try to avoid any form of stress at this stage.”

“I know,” he glossed with a forced smile.

Dudley was left open-mouthed, his fork hanging in the air.

“Pregnancy,” he repeated, with the face of a man who had just witnessed a mystical apparition. “ _Pregnancy_.”

“Yes, Dud. I believe I told you about some wizards’ ability to generate children. Of course, the whole process requires a solid magical core. But Harry Potter is the most powerful wizard of his generation, so who could do that better than him?”

Dudley’s annihilated look shifted from Ellie to Harry and his baby bump, up to Draco who seemed on the verge of doing something very nasty.

“Yes, Dudley. Harry’s really powerful. And also I have learned a trick or two during the war,” he confirmed, pulling up his sleeve enough to reveal a disturbing tattoo on his skin. 

Dudley had a very bad feeling about him.

“The roast must be ready!” Ellie exclaimed. “Draco, would you help me?”

 “Certainly.”

 

~

 

“I don’t understand how you could have done that! I simply don’t!” the Slytherin barked, moving nervously in the kitchen. “Harry’s pregnant, he’s vulnerable! And you put him in such a dangerous situation!”

“Hey, calm down!” Ellie hushed him, studying her roast. It was looking good, to be fair. “It’s not like I have invited a Death Eater to dinner! Dudley is a Muggle, but I assure you that he’s totally helpless and wouldn’t hurt a fly, let alone attacking Harry for some reason!”

“Such audacity! How can you joke like that?”

“Plus we evolved,” Ellie continued, rolling her eyes. “You are familiar with a certain _Granger Decree_ on association with non-magical people, right?”

“What does that have to do with anything? I must remember you that Harry is the Chosen One. The _pregnant_ Chosen One! How can you be sure about Dudley’s intentions? Perhaps he’s one of those fanatics who wants to snatch Harry’s hair for their potions or Salazar knows what! He might be mentally unstable! He could put the child in danger! MY CHILD!”

“Relax, Draco! Dudley seems more interested in the cheese, to be honest. And, again, what’s with all this fuss? Is he a known criminal or something?”

“No,” Draco replied, trying to regain his proverbial composure. “No, he’s not a criminal. As far as I know.”

“So?”

Draco pursed his lips and grabbed a tray for the roast.

 

~

 

“So …”

“So.”

Dudley started toying with his fork.

“How’s going? You look good. Like, everything seems ...”

“I’m fine,” Harry replied. “Everything’s fine. I’ve been married for few years. I have a nice job.”

“And you’re also ...”

“Yes, I also have a child on the way,” he finished, caressing his belly.

“Wow.”

“Pretty much. I imagine you have questions. Keep those for yourself, please.”

“I didn’t ...”

“Why are you here? How do you know a witch?”

Ellie explained it entering the room with the meal curse.

“It’s a cute story,” She said. “Dudley was near the Ministry, when I was wondering completely lost. He was kind to give me information even though he hadn’t the slightest idea about where I was heading. And then we met again in a pub down the street. I had just finished with the documents for the job at St Mungo’s and I was starving! Dudley offered me a sandwich and we talked. He knew immediately that I was a witch! Can you imagine? He also have wizards in his family!”

Harry started coughing and Draco seemed to even change colour.

Ellie stared at them.

“What did I just said? You’re all strange tonight. Is there something I should know? When Harry arrived he guessed Dudley’s name …”

“Yes, there’s something you should know” Dudley interrupted, clenching his sweaty fists. “Well, you see ... when I told you about magical people in my family …” 

Draco narrowed his eyes like a predator about to jump.

“Actually ... It’s Harry! Harry’s my magical relative. The Potters are my uncles.”

“Oh!” Ellie exhaled. “Oh! So you two are ...”

“Cousins, yup.”

“Oh!” Ellie’s eyes looked comically big. “But you don’t see each other very often, right? You don’t seem …”

Clenching his teeth, Harry found himself in need to give explanations.

“No. We aren’t a close family, so to speak. Dudley’s parents, my uncles ... let’s just say they never liked me being a wizard.”

“To put it mildly!”

“Draco, please,” Harry whispered, clutching his husband’s hand. “It’s water under the bridge and, in any case, I don’t want to think about it now. Can we eat our dinner in peace?” he asked, settling better on his chair. Here’s the back pain again.

“Sure. I didn’t know,” Ellie muttered, mortified. “I couldn’t imagine …”

“Well, I couldn’t imagine to find a Dursley here tonight, but there he is!” Harry exclaimed, suddenly rising from the table. “Excuse me, I need to go to the loo.”

 

~

 

In the dining room, Draco and Ellie were arguing heatedly. Sometimes even Dudley’s voice was added to the mix. Their quarrel was torturing Harry almost as the terrible back pain that was forcing him to bend over the sink.

“Damn, damn, damn ...” he was repeating in a mantra, while taking deep breaths.

“Everything’s okay in there?” Ellie cried out.

“Yes!” he lied, leaning one last time. “Get up!” he commanded himself.

In the mirror he saw his pale face. Damp hair and dark circles under his eyes. He found himself ugly and pathetic.

“Harry?”

“Just a minute,” he said, praying that his voice wasn’t betraying his current suffering.

He took another deep breath and rinsed his sweaty face.

“Here I am!” he announced, once out of the bathroom.

Draco was waiting for him.

“Everything’s fine?” he asked, with a worried frown. “You don’t seem …”

“Yes, yes! Just a little ... you know ... Let’s get back, c’mon.”

 

 ~

 

“You never told me that your magical relative was Harry Potter,” Ellie said with a tone that veered dangerously in the cold zone.

“I didn’t think it was important. I didn’t know that ...”

“Harry Potter,” she muttered very slowly. “The Boy Who Lived. The Saviour of the Wizarding World!”

“Well, how could I know that he had all these titles?”

“You just said that you’ve lived under the same roof for years!”

When Draco and Harry returned, the two of them fell immediately silent, turning far away like children caught stealing at Honeydukes.

“Harry! How are you feeling?”

“Yes, Harry ... are you alright?” Dudley offered, growing more and more uncomfortable.

His cousin’s belly was really, really huge. Was the pregnancy story all true? Dudley felt a terrified shiver on his back.

“Fine,” Harry said, sitting down on his goddamn chair. Because of the back pain he wasn’t able to close his legs. “Oh, roast!”

“Yes!” Ellie chuckled anxiously. “Let me serve you a portion.”

“Allow me,” Draco interrupted, brandishing his wand.

That wizards used that even to cut the roast was ridiculous! Moreover, Dudley thought, the blond guy with a weapon in his hands was not to be underestimated. Especially if Harry told him a few episodes of their childhood ...

“Are you alright, Dudley?” Draco asked, with a vaguely sadistic expression on his face. 

“Yup.”

“Marvellous, really. You see, I just realised that we haven’t let you participate in the conversation that much. We don’t know anything about your job, for example. Or the family at home.”

Dudley swallowed.

The blond guy – _Harry’s husband! Harry’s husband!_ – didn’t look very friendly.

“Well, there’s not much to say ...”

“Please, I imagine you’re leading a very exciting life!”

“Ehrm ...”

“Draco, that’s enough,” Harry warned, grabbing his arm.

“What did I say?”

“Enough,” Harry repeated through gritted teeth, for the pain he was trying to conceal was becoming worse. “I know where you’re going with this.”

“Where?” Ellie asked. “I mean, you all seem committed to fight a silent war and since you’re my guests I would like to know what the hell is going on!”

“Ellie, please ...”

“It’s about mine and Harry’s childhood,” Dudley confessed, before anyone could add anything else. “That’s why your albino friend looks so angry!”

_“Albino to whom?!”_

“Your childhood? Explain.”

“Ugly filthy Muggle …”

“Draco, stop!” Harry snapped. “Dudley, not another word!”

But Dudley wasn’t listening.

“There … you see, the fact is that … _Harryusedtosleepinthecupboardandmeandmyfriendspunchedhim_.”

“What??”

“Harry,” Dudley said tightening his grasp on his fork as a weight to lift. “He slept in a cupboard, under the stairs. My parents didn’t want to see him. And I and the boys used to break his glasses or do small pranks on him ...”

“Small pranks? Cupboard??”

“Since when hurting a defenceless child is a small prank?” Draco growled, now beyond fake decency.

“He said that we were hurting him?” Dudley asked.

“You just said it yourself, you idiot! And no, Harry never tells me anything about his past! He doesn’t want to talk about that. But since you’re here why don’t we use this occasion for a nice walk on the memory lane? So my Unforgivable will be even more effective!”

“Hey, I was a child too!” Dudley protested, jumping on his feet.

His movement was mimicked by Draco and Ellie.

“Well, he was clearly the tiniest one. And fragile!”

“Your parents were keeping a child under the stairs? Their nephew??”

“That’s right, Ellie! The parents of your dear Muggle friend! They did just that!”

It was Harry’s scream that silenced the litigants, as much as a vase of flowers exploding in the living room.

“ENOUGH! ALL OF YOU! NOW!” he ordered, clenching his fists and pushing back his chair to stand up. “Not another word!” he warned, red in pain and anger, crawling towards the bathroom.

The back pain was killing him.

“Harry …”

“Harry, what’s wrong?”

He didn’t realise that others were coming after him like frightened puppies. He pressed himself against the wall and continued his via crucis towards the loo.

“Harry, stop …”

Once inside, he fell against the cold surface of the bathtub, spreading his legs shacking with spasms.

“Damn it!” he sobbed, arching his back. The pain was clouding his view. He heard one question ‘ _Oh my God, is he going into labour?_ ’, and squeezed his belly hard.

“No, no! It’s too early! It’s too soon!” He writhed in pain. 

What would happen if he gave birth now? Would the baby survive? Would he hurt him or lose …

Draco’s voice roused him from his confused thoughts.

“Harry.”

He felt his husband’s hand squeezing his own.

“Draco …” he called, opening his eyes wet with tears.

Was he crying?

“Harry,” Draco said again, infusing decision in his handshake. “I’m here with you. It’s all right, love. Breathe now.”

Harry sobbed, unable to obey.

“Breathe, breathe …” he repeated, with professionalism.

The air went out Harry’s lungs in confused puffs, before he could adjust the pace of his breathing.

“Very good, my love,” Draco soothed, drawing his wand to check on Harry’s blood and magic values. “Very, very good.”

“He doesn’t seem to go for a premature labour …” Ellie observed, also checking with her wand.

“No, but the child is under stress and his magic …”

“His magic …”

_“I won’t!”_ Harry sighed, trying to suppress the echo of voices buzzing in his head. _“I won’t go there anymore!”_

Then they all saw a surreal scene, with very few precedents in the Wizarding World.

The “ghosts” of Petunia and Vernon Dursley materialised at the entrance of the bathroom, just like Boggarts. They surpassed Dudley’s shocked face and froze before Harry, pointing an accusing finger at him and staring with fiery eyes.

_“HARRY POTTER!”_

_“… HARRY POTTER!”_

_“YOU ARE A WASTE OF SPACE!”_

_“… A WASTE OF SPACE!”_

_“WE DON’T WANT YOU HERE!”_

_“… WE DON’T WANT YOU!”_

Harry let out a sob, before the ghosts disappeared with a loud “pop”. Draco’s hand reached for him yet again and then there were sparks of spells and hisses of wands fluttering in the air.

A wave of merciful pleasure invaded the Chosen One’s muscles, loosening the terrible tension he was feeling in the groin.

Harry sighed and slipped more and more on the floor.

“It was his magic!” Ellie exclaimed, incredulous and deeply sad. “Harry’s magic and … _the baby’s!_ He showed us …”

“Love, look at me.”

Harry opened his eyes, turning to Draco.

“The pants … they’re hurting …”

He felt his husband’s hands trafficking with the elastic of his trousers and then the relief of having his belly freed. He smiled, exhausted.

“I didn’t mean to do that. I’m sorry, Draco …”

“Harry,” Dudley whispered, approaching slowly and solemnly. “Sorry,” he said, kneeling before him. “ _Sorry_. Really.”

Harry nodded, slipping into a merciful sleep.

In the kitchen all the glasses exploded at once.

 

~

 

“For someone who cares for other people’s sake, tonight I really sucked!” Ellie said, shaking the steaming mug in her hands.

Harry was lying in her bed, surrounded by pillows and calmer for the effect of resting potions.

“I’m sorry for the glasses and for ruining dinner. You were so nice to cook all that stuff for us …”

“Nonsense!” she said, putting down the cup on the nightstand. “That’s for later, when you wake up. Rest now.”

“In your bed? Where do you sleep?”

“Oh, I was called for an emergency. I don’t think I’ll be back before morning. Go ahead and have a good rest. When you’ll wake up, your sweetheart will greet you with a nice morning breakfast. I’ve got all the _Gilmore Girls_ DVDs, Draco is gonna enjoy those.”

“Thanks,” Harry mumbled, snuggling under the covers.

“It’s my job,” she smiled. “Forgive me for not understanding before …”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Night, Harry.”

Ellie walked out of the room leaving the door open and Dudley made his timid entrance.

“Hey,” he greeted, peeping from the door. “Can I?”

“Come in,” Harry conceded, in a nirvana of excellent potions.

Dudley stepped awkwardly towards him. He grabbed a chair and sat in front of the bed, keeping a certain distance.

“How’s it going?” he asked.

“Better,” Harry assured him, running a hand on the swollen belly.

Dudley studied his gesture with avid curiosity.

“There’s really a baby in there, right?”

Harry chuckled.

“Yes, there really is.”

“Boy or girl?”

“We don’t know.”

“Huh?”

“We don’t,” Harry repeated, with a serene smile on his face. “We chose to be surprised. We only know that it’s one baby and that he’s healthy and strong. That’s enough for me and Draco. We’ll love him no matter what.”

“And you can’t predict the sex with your wizarding powers or anything like that?”

Harry laughed.

“I can’t. It doesn’t work like that.”

Dudley nodded thoughtfully. For a moment he looked like he wanted to touch his cousin, then he stopped clenching his fists.

“I know I’ve already said it …”

“That’s okay, Dudley. It’s past.”

“ … We shouldn’t have treated you like that.”

Harry nodded, a shadow in his eyes.

“You were just a kid.”

“Yes. Yes, I was. You too, though.”

The Dudley’s eyes widened.

“Harry … there’s no chance that you’ll go to my parents where they are now?”

“Not the slightest.”

“Great,” Dudley said, rising from his chair. “See you, Harry. And good luck.”

“Thank you, Big D.”

It was Draco’s turn to approach. He greeted Dudley with an aristocratic nod and closed the door after making sure he was gone. He put the chair aside and sat in the empty corner of the bed, next to his husband.

He bent down to kiss his neck, touch his belly.

“Draco, I’m sorry for …”

“Don’t,” he murmured, pressing his lips in the warm curve of Harry’s neck again and again. “Forgive me for not understanding. Forgive your husband’s foolishness.”

Harry blushed and covered Draco’s hand with his own. They stood still for a moment, then Draco pulled away and looked at Harry with immense sadness.

“What?”

“I’m sorry,” he confessed. “I wanted to know. I wished more than anything to understand all your secrets and know everything about your childhood.”

“Why?”

Draco shrugged.

“You never talk about it. Hermione and Ron know, but the others … and _me_ …”

Harry stroked his fingers.

“I don’t like to talk about it. Every time I have to, I feel weak and pathetic as that child under the stairs.”

“You were not pathetic. You were just helpless.”

“I know.”

“Most of all,” Draco confessed, staring into his eyes with the intensity of their most intimate moments. “Most of all, I’m afraid I wasn’t that different from the boy who tormented you and made your life a living hell,” he sighed.

Harry gaped at him.

“You weren’t like Dudley!” he said, a little too fast, a little too loud.

“Wasn’t I?” Draco urged, rolling his eyes. His husband was a terrible liar. “You were just arrived at Hogwarts, an only child with the weight of the world on his shoulders, and I did nothing but provoke you! I should have realised your situation sooner! I should have …”

“I think we figured out why you did nothing but provoke me,” Harry whispered with a hint of amusement in his voice.

Draco shook his head.

“In any case, I was terrible to you. And tonight I should have realised what I was putting you through. I am deeply ashamed, Harry. Will you ever forgive me?”

“I think I’ve already done that, Mr Potter.”

Harry turned to catch Draco’s lips in a slow kiss. Their clasped hands on his swollen belly perceived the baby’s sudden movements.

“Our son is practicing the Wronsky feint!”

“Draco …” Harry muttered, blushing happily. “I think it’s a girl …”

“A girl?”

“Yes. Our daughter.”

Draco moved the blankets to reveal Harry’s naked belly. He could see the outline of a foot down his husband’s navel.

“Our daughter,” he smiled, holding out a hand.

 

 

 

**Epilogue, One and a half month later …**

 

“Oh, she’s absolutely perfect! Isn’t she, Ronald?”

Hermione rocked the pink bundle in her arms, caressing her little mouth wet with saliva and milk, along with the clear eyebrows. “She reminds me of Rosie in the hours after her birth. Don’t you think? She’s so beautiful!”

Ron circled his wife’s waist and smiled lovingly at Lily Narcissa, sleepy and gurgling in her aunt’s embrace.

Around the sofa, in the Malfoy-Potter living room, Rosie and Hugo were running chased by their cousins, occasionally by an exasperated rebuke from grandma Molly or by a secretly amused glare from grandpa Arthur. Neville and Luna were discussing with Andromeda, Ginny was informing Oliver Wood of her Holyhead Harpies’ achievements and there were Seamus, Dean and all the other trusted friends. Sitting on the sofa, Harry giggled as Pansy and George made a precise chronicle of Draco’s hysterical reactions during the labour.

“All falsities!” he exclaimed, emerging from the kitchen with a pristine bib and a glass of water for Harry.

Narcissa came in a minute later.

“Well,” she begin, having exchanged a nod with her son. “I would say that the welcome party for Lily Narcissa can be considered concluded! Let’s give the new parents the time to settle back home.”

The announcement was followed by the general hustle and bustle of the huge Weasley/Potter/Malfoy plus friends clan composing itself and walking towards the Floo. Draco and Harry greeted each guest and gave them confetti.

Hermione and Ron were the last to leave. While Ron caught his roaming children, Hermione handed Lily Narcissa to her best friend, not before reddening his cheeks with kisses.

“She’s incredibly perfect and we are very proud of you, Harry!” she declared, saying goodbye.

Harry smiled and sat down on the couch with Lily Narcissa.

“Mother’s house-elves are helping in the kitchen. They’ll fix everything,” Draco promised, starting to clean the living room by himself.

Harry wasn’t listening, enchanted by the beauty of their new-born daughter.

Draco kneeled before him.

“You heard what Molly said. Holding new-borns too much make them less accustomed to the cradle.”

“Mh …” Harry mumbled. “At the hospital they were constantly taking her away from me. I didn’t even had the chance to take a good look at her.”

“That’s because you needed to rest,” Draco chuckled, grabbing a little hand and pretending to eat it.

Harry laughed and ended up kissing his husband’s smile.

The unusual sound of the bell interrupted them.

“What?”

“Wait,” Draco said, taking his leave with one last kiss.

Harry saw him reaching the front door and, beyond the threshold, he saw Ellie’s smiling face. Then he bowed his head. Lily Narcissa had covered his shirt with saliva.

“Hey,” a familiar voice greeted.

Harry looked up at Dudley advancing into his living room, carrying a box.

“Hi, Harry! Before you kick me out, I just want you to know that I asked Ellie who asked your husband and both have agreed to this visit. From what you said last time, I guessed that the baby was due by the end of April or something like that, so I got my permission in time. I wanted to bring a gift.”

“I’m not going to kick you out, Big D. Thanks for the thought. Have a seat,” Harry said, pointing at the chair before him.

Dudley dragged the box and sat down. It was a simple, cardboard box, wrapped in packaging tape.

“You guessed correctly," Harry said, after a few seconds of awkward silence. “My daughter. She was born on May 3th.”

“Oh so …”

“She’s a girl,” Harry pointed out, giving an adoring look to the bundle clutched to his chest.

The baby was tiny and flushed, had rosy lips and locks of black hair going in all directions. She seemed Harry’s miniature in a diaper.

“Her name is Lily Narcissa. Narcissa is Draco’s mother and Lily …”

“Was yours,” Dudley finished for him.

Harry nodded.

“She looks a lot like you!” 

“Thanks.”

“Listen … I’ve got something for you.”

 

 ~

 

When Draco returned to the living room, Dudley and Ellie had already gone and the house elves had cleaned both the kitchen and the hallway.

Draco checked the clock, to make sure it wasn’t time for Lily Narcissa’s feeding. He had prepared tea for his husband and put on the tray a generous ration of biscuits.

After their daughter’s birth, Harry had decided to banish every confectionery product from the house, in hope to lose pregnancy weight faster. However a Malfoy had an obligation to pamper his consort, especially after a troubled birth, and anyway Harry looked gorgeous with rounder hips.

“Here,” he murmured, placing the tray next to Harry. His husband was rocking and kissing baby Lily. “Do you want to give her to me?”

Harry shook his head and pointed at the box on the floor.

“Can you open it?” he asked. 

Draco frowned, worried by the melancholy he perceived in his voice.

“Certainly,” he said, moving his wand.

The box opened, revealing its contents and a letter.

Draco read it.

_“Dear cousin,_

_These items belonged to Lily Evans, your mother. It wasn’t easy to find them. After her death, my mother dumped basically everything (Sorry!) But this stuff was kept in the old attic of our grandparents’ house, so I could find it. It’s your stuff, and it also belongs to the baby you’re carrying. With my best wishes, Dudley.”_

Harry’s eyes were already wet with tears.

“Could you show me the items?”

“Certainly, my love. Are you alright?”

Harry nodded.

Draco sat on the floor and began to pull out the objects.

Firstly, he pulled out from the box a set of phials used for Potions; they were intensely coloured if worn by time. One was broken in the middle and shone like a diamond in the light. Lily Narcissa opened her eyes.

There were two books of Muggle fairy-tales, a tiny flower-shaped bottle of cologne, some hair ribbons and an old pair of red and golden socks.

A baseball hat, a textbook on arithmetic, a teddy bear with buttons as eyes and without an arm, a green blanket with initials above.

“We might give it to our Lily,” Draco suggested.

Then he continued to search in the box and found a carillon and some coloured marbles. A little girl dress, flowery and sky blue.

“I remember this,” Harry whispered, without bothering about the tears running down his cheeks. “I saw it in the memories … in _Severus Snape’s memories._ ”

Draco nodded. He held the little blue dress to his chest and tried to picture a distant child, lying on a playing field, free and safe.

When Lily Narcissa began to fuss, he rushed to comfort her. Then looked at Harry, still crying.

“My love … I shouldn’t let him come, I’m sorry.”

“No!” Harry replied, waving a hand and revealing a secret smile. “No. It was kind of him and of you. It was very kind.”

Draco took their fussing child and caressed Harry’s humid face. He made him smile harder.

“You know,” Harry confessed in a small voice. “When I was a kid I was … it was such a strange pain to not know where I came from. My aunt and uncle didn’t want to talk about my parents and I was forbidden to ask. I lived in a constant state of not knowing.”

“Oh Harry ...”

“And ... at some point, when I was really little, I even thought that I came out from nowhere. That I was this weird thing fallen from the sky, _never belonging_. But my father and mother … they were watching over me. They really, really existed. And I belonged to them.”

“Yes,” Draco replied, quietly shading his own tears. 

He rocked Lily Narcissa until she was sleepy again and inhaled the sweetest scent of her skin and hair. His baby daughter. His and Harry’s child.

“You know,” he started, holding his little family closer. “We will tell her stories about your parents. We will tell her who they were and what they did and how much they loved you. And Lily Evans will never be forgotten. And me and her … We are yours. We will always belong to you.”

Harry smiled and kissed him fully and wonderfully. They ended up supporting their daughter’s head and staring at her in delight. 

Unaware of the reasons of all the fuss, Lily gurgled and kept on dreaming.

 

 


End file.
